While not everything on reality TV is 100 percent … well, real, the bond between “Squid Game: The Challenge” competitors Stephen Lomas and Chase Higgins is anything but scripted, the Kansas City duo said.
Longtime friends and business partners — the two previously co-founded Let’s Get Moving, a social media savvy moving company that gained them influencer status across platforms like TikTok, Instagram and Patreon — Lomas and Higgins talked about their experiences filming the hit Netflix competition series with a live crowd of Startland News readers in mid-December.
“It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done,” said Lomas, who battled as No. 243 into the 10-episode season, which offers a reality TV twist on the popular 2021 South Korean TV phenomenon “Squid Game.”
And he wouldn’t have done it without Higgins at his side, he told the Startland News LIVE audience.
When a casting producer familiar with Lomas’ social media brands — his personal account has more than 650,000 followers across TikTok and Instagram; accounts featuring his family life with girlfriend, Alix Blahnik, and their daughters have another nearly 1.6 million followers — contacted Lomas about auditioning for the show, he didn’t hesitate to offer a challenge of his own, he recalled.
“I said it word for word, ‘I don’t do anything without my friends, so if they can come, I’ll do it,’” Lomas recounted. “They said, ‘Actually, yeah, that will work,’ so we applied together and they liked it.”
Click here to follow Lomas on social media, here to follow Higgins, and here to check out their KC Boys group accounts.
Haven’t binged “Squid Game: The Challenge” yet? Check out the trailer below — featuring Kansas City players Stephen Lomas and Chase Higgins — then keep reading.
A draining competition
Both Lomas and Higgins — who competed as player No. 242 — described the show’s filming as a mentally draining, trauma-bonding experience from the start.
“Walking in, it was incredible; just the mass of the room. It was basically identical to (the setting of the Red Light, Green Light game in the original ‘Squid Game’ show),” Lomas said, describing the opening competition, which mimicked the fictional deadly challenge depicted in the South Korean TV show.
RELATED: How did ‘Squid Game: The Challenge’ pull off Red Light, Green Light?
Moments on screen that looked like 10 minutes to watch were actually the culmination of hours or even full days of shooting, Higgins added, detailing how competitors had to stand completely still during the Red Light, Green Light episode for 30 to 45 minutes at a time.
“If it’s any indication how difficult Red Light, Green Light was, it started with 456 (players) and fewer than 200 made it through to the next game,” said Higgins, who was eliminated early during the game. “I lost fair and square.”
“I saw it happen,” Lomas recalled. “It was like a quarter step after the song stopped, and I was like ‘Damn. Oh, he’s about to be gone.’ Ten minutes later, his squid pops.”
The “Squid Game” opener proved anything could happen — and to anyone, he continued. Not even Higgins, an avid rugby player with the Kansas City Blues alongside Lomas, was safe.
“I’m still surprised that Old Man Rick, who turned 69 that day, made it and Chase didn’t. A mother-son combo made it, and this athletic specimen didn’t make it,” said Lomas. “It was crazy.”
Because he advanced in the series and provided a compelling story for producers (and resonated with the audience), Lomas ultimately was heavily featured in social media promotions and marketing for the show; his trademark haircut finding its way into the featured photos of countless news stories and blogs about the Netflix show throughout its run.
View this post on Instagram
Moments outside the games — on and off camera — presented their own challenges, Lomas explained, noting competitors who advanced were placed in situations where they couldn’t tell how much time was passing, when they’d be eating next, or what game was around the corner.
And then there were the dorms where challengers bunked together — “stuck with people who stink, the snoring symphony every night,” Lomas said.
Forced to carry on without Higgins after his buddy’s Red Light, Green Light misstep, Lomas enjoyed making new friends — including “Old Man Rick” Mercurio, also known as player No. 232 — among the competitors and production crew, he said.
“We were freaking drained, but it was still really cool to share those emotions and the success with the team behind the scenes,” Lomas said.
Monetizing a dream come true
Lomas and Higgins’ appearance on “Squid Game: The Challenge” wasn’t a fluke, the duo said, describing it as part of an intentional evolution of their personal and business brands, which began in 2015 in Kansas City with the launch of their traditional, physically intensive moving company, Let’s Get Moving.
“I was a little teenager moving heavy boxes all day, and I was like ‘This sucks.’ What could make it better was doing it with my friends,” said Lomas. “So I recruited this guy right here, grabbed him by his ear, and said ‘You’re coming with me.’ And we never looked back.”
From the archives: Why this five-star moving company takes TikTok behind the scenes of its expansion
As Let’s Get Moving grew, so too did the ranks of their friends; the movers became known as the “LGM Boys” with key company leadership positions including Desi Kraus, Kyle Allen, Blakeston Bryant, and Diego Barra.
“We ran Let’s Get Moving for eight years, and it was always part of our business model to make online content as a way to drum up business,” said Higgins. “It naturally evolved to the point where we could make more content — while making more money — and not have to break our backs.”
In 2023, the team shut down the moving company operation to focus exclusively on revenue-generating social media content — pivoting their platforms entirely from marketing engines to the product itself.
“A lot of people really just liked Chase’s face, so we needed to focus on that full time,” Lomas joked.
View this post on Instagram
The company’s last move was to sell one final “Sexy Movers” calendar this holiday season.
“It’s been a journey of figuring out how to monetize hanging out with your friends all day,” Lomas said, calling the overall payoff “a dream come true.”
RELATED: TikTok’s favorite moving company pivots to full-time influencer business
Higgins credits Lomas — who serves as head creative for the group, now known as KC Boys on TikTok and Instagram with about 440,000 followers — as a driving force behind their success.
“Stephen’s an absolute workhorse,” Higgins said, pointing out the intensity of Lomas’ fanbase and the following he’s created with his other projects alongside Alix Blahnik. “That’s a direct reflection of the amount of work he puts in.”
Click here to check out the Alix & Stephen Show on TikTok.
KC Boys’ next season
Armed with a talent agent in New York, more film and TV projects could be on the horizon for Lomas, Higgins, and their fellow KC Boys, they said. But they’ll continue to be deliberate about what they take on next.
“I’m a homebody. I’m not good at being away from Alix and the girls, so it was really hard for me in that regard — which is honestly why I looked so stressed out and tired on the show,” Lomas said of the “Squid Game: The Challenge” filming experience. “But now that everything’s said and done, it’s making me miss the show and everything that happened. Not having the show to look forward to kind of sucks.”
Would he attempt to compete again on another season of the show?
“I’d much rather see Alix go; she’s really excited about applying and doing better than I did,” he said, laughing.
Higgins sees a world full of opportunities, he said, noting how he, Lomas, and the KC Boys lean into their entrepreneur backgrounds — opting for bold, at-times risky choices over more comfortable, predictable careers.
“When you’re working on a coloring book, you can stay in the lines; you’re constrained by some parameters but it can be wonderful. You know exactly what you need to do next and how it’s going to end up,” Higgins said. “Whereas being an entrepreneur, there are no lines. You have a blank canvas, so the possibilities are much greater. There’s no clear path of what needs to happen; it’s just a journey of figuring out the next step.”
“That’s why we call him the mouth of the group,” Lomas said.